


Exactly our sort of nonsense

by Slant



Series: The things I perceive [2]
Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Absent Characters, Long-Distance Relationship, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 10:06:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12455205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slant/pseuds/Slant
Summary: Some sort of preposterous nonsense is happening in Beach City. Juri thinks they should investigate. Nanami thinks that people should bring her elaborate pineapple drinks.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This follows the timeline for "I do not perceive my attention as wasted", but maybe this would make more sense fifteen years after the end of Utena- that would make the two series's release dates line up. 
> 
> But then there's no Juri (in my timeline) for Nanami to resent for being so elegant all the damn time. 
> 
> Then again, one thing about "I do not perceive my attention as wasted" I like was seeing them all past middle-age, so maybe it's for the best.

U

After forty years, three months and eleven days, Juri calls her. When Juri calls, it is never about anything fun. This time she has a photo of a elegant spire rising out of the sea and vanishing into the clouds.  
"This was taken off the east coast, about a week ago. I thought you'd want to know."  
"How tall is it? Can real people see it?"

N

Juri and Utena make plans to go and investigate alone - you've got a real life, it's too dangerous - which Nanami completely ignores. When they object she is mockingly implacable. "Of course I'm going. Your only choice is if me and Wakaba go for an unrelated and completely innocuous beach day, or if we go with you."  
She can see Juri biting her tongue to not correct "me and Wakaba" to "Wakaba and I", and that tiny victory has her smiling for the rest of the day. 

N

Juri tried to disuade her again later.  
"I appreciate you being protective, but did you lose your common sense as well as your fashion sense when you got the badge?" She's being bitter; on Juri her police dress uniforms may as well be haute couture. "This is my awful past too, and I'm going; besides I don't trust either of you to look out for the other." 

N

They arrive in Beach City on public transport- Juri does drive and Nanami has a chauffeur but Utena makes a point of not using cars except when she has to. It's a nice place, if a bit sea-side cheap-and-cheerful*; as far as Nanami is concerned "populated by the hoi polloi" is a land more mythical than elfland - she's broken out of fairyland once.

* Wakaba threatens her with candyfloss. Utena and Juri look on bemused as she play-acts flinching away from the cheapness. 

N

They notice the pair of kids fighting a giant monster.  
"Well?" says Nanami impatiently, gesturing to her chest.  
"Can we at least try a mundane approach first?" asks Juri.  
"Fine but don't come crying to me when it refuses to recognize the authority of your ridiculous police department."  
Nanami is comfortable enough with herself to admit that Juri radiates confidence and power in ways she never could as she shouts for the monster to freeze. She still experiences a frisson of schadenfreude when the blonde gets knocked on her arse.  
Nanami hurries over to the former duelist, grabs her hand and puts it on her own sternum while Juri is still raising (gracefully! Ugh!) to her feet.  
Light flares and the metaphor-made-physical of her heart's sword emerges in a timeless instant. She'd explained to Juri once that she thought of it as the opposite of mystical. The mystical was all visions and revelations. This was light and dream-symbols becoming brute matter.  
"Thank you. I'll try and be worthy of your trust," says Juri, flawlessly refined, like she'd read the proper form for pulling a blade made of feelings from your friend's breast in an etiquette book.  
Nanami rolls her eyes. "`Oh Senpai please take good care of my heart!' Go. Help. The children. You. Complete. Prat." She's a lot more coherent than a typical duelist's companion was by this stage of the the proceedings back in the day; it's almost like a grown woman has more in her heart than a dumb kid who didn't know where bowling balls came from.


	2. Chapter 2

S  
Once Steven had bubbled the gem, he ran over to the group of middle-aged women who had helped them.  
"Hi everyone! thanks for helping with that gem-monster. I'm Steven, and this is Connie." He seemed friendly, cheerful and socially confident. Utena boggled at him; this was completely outside her life-experience.  
"Good day. Are giant monsters a common occurrence in these parts?" asked Juri, her couture and coiffure mysteriously unruffled.  
"Is there somewhere we can clean up?" asked Nanami, intensely aware of the gravel in her bleeding palms and the tears and filth in her breezy beach wear   
"Oh sure! My Dad runs a car wash down by the boardwalk."   
Utena straighted her spine and wrapped one arm around Wakaba; if there was a carwash, she was keeping the sword.  
"Okay... so... that's not one of the things that normally makes people adjust their grip on their weapons," said Steven, backing away slightly.  
"Car washes are a powerful metaphor for transmutation and renewal in the mechanized age. As such they are a nexus of the Art, and we all hate wizards."  
Even Wakabba, who was a little wobbly from sword-fever gave Nanami a look at that pronouncement.  
"What? I've read The Golden Bough. I'm not ignorant."  
"I think ... maybe? There was a time I went through the car wash and I transformed from a mass of angry cat-parts into a boy?" said Steven.  
"It's all good though!" Steven reassured generally, "I've got a much better handle on transformation now."  
This was not, apparently, enough, as Connie was still giving him her "We'll Talk about this" look. He laughed nervously.  
"I turn into a car. That's just common sense. Come on let's get cleaned up and then talk." said Utena  
"Maybe food?" asked Steven.

...  
N  
Juri was eating her fry-bits with chopsticks and not dropping them. Nanami raged inwardly. She, like any normal person (she glanced at Utena and Wakaba and Steven and Connie to reasssure herself that yes, this was a normal behaviour) was getting greasy fingers and was going to have to find a napkin later. That "hot fat and spice-substitute flavour" was so completely novel that she couldn't form an opinion on it ... well, Wakaba could tease her about it later, but for now she was greatful that she was holding back in front of annoyingly-perfect Juri and the mysterious children.   
Where did she even get them from? They weren't disposable, paper-wrapped and from one of the boardwalk vendors, they were beautiful objects. Where did she keep them? Ughh. Nanami was better than this She was comfortable with herself! Sometimes awkward, yes, that was how humans worked, but okay with that. But then Juri was all poise and elegance and fucking hell it was like she was fifteen again and terrified that someone would tell her she was Doing It Wrong.   
Ugh.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I don't know if this goes anywhere. I have a suspicion that Steven and Connie will be bubbling the gem monster by the time any of the Utena characters actually get anything done.


End file.
